Saudi Arabia welcomes US declaration on the killing of Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
According to Tuesday’s statement from the foreign ministry, Saudi Arabia welcomed the US declaration that Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had been killed.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomed the announcement by US President Joe Biden of the targeting and killing of the terrorist leader of Al-Qaeda Ayman Al-Zawahiri,” it stated.
The declaration was made shortly after Biden said that Zawahiri, one of the most wanted terrorists in the world and the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, had been killed by a drone strike in Kabul.
He was “considered one of the leaders of terrorism that led the planning and execution of heinous terrorist operations in the United States, Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries of the world,” according to the Saudi foreign ministry.
“Thousands of innocent people of different nationalities and religions, including Saudi citizens, were killed,” according to the statement.
“The Kingdom’s government stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation and concerted international efforts to combat and eradicate terrorism, calling on all countries to cooperate in this framework to protect innocent people from terrorist organisations.”
Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born who had a $25 million US reward on his head, gained control of Al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed by US special operations in Pakistan in 2011.
On July 31, an hour after dawn, two Hellfire missiles were fired at Zawahiri, who was, according to a senior US administration official, standing on the balcony of a house in Kabul.
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